Each year organized groups of professional shoplifters steal or fraudulently obtain billions of dollars in merchandise to resell in an activity known as ORC. These stolen goods can also be sold on online marketplaces, a practice known as “e-fencing.” This report assessed ORC and e-fencing.

It addresses: (1) types of efforts that select retailers, state and local law enforcement, and federal agencies are undertaking to combat ORC; (2) the extent to which tools or mechanisms exist to facilitate collaboration and info. sharing among these ORC stakeholders; and (3) steps that online marketplaces have taken to combat ORC and e-fencing, and additional actions retailers and law enforcement think may enhance these efforts. Illus. This is a print on demand report.

“Each year, more than 200,000 children become victims of family
abduction (FA). Taken from family, home, and friends by a parent or other family member, they are thrust into a life of uncertainty and isolation. FA is a crime in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia. Written with the help of six people who have experienced family abduction, this publication features valuable insights from a first-hand perspective. It is designed to provide the searching family, law enforcement, and mental health professionals with strategies to build a comprehensive, child-centered approach to recovery and healing. Above all, this publication was prepared to support victims subjected to the crime of FA.”

Calling all detectives: Welcome to the Mystery of the Russian Ruby — a pop-up whodunit with three different endings! Who has stolen the priceless jewel? Lift flaps to reveal hidden clues and secret facts to help you find the thief.

There are six suspects: Angelica, Countess Wilby, Major Stropp, Tilly the Maid, Professor Proudfoot and Spencer the Butler. There are six clues: a blow dart, an insurance policy, a dagger, a bottle of sleeping lotion, a manual on cracking safes and the library key.

By turning a wheel, you can solve this shocking crime once — twice — three times!

Our favorite spread is the final page detailing “The Suspects” (click to enlarge):

“This wonderful book has many moving pictures and characters that surround the castle,” writes Nadia Herbish in Ukrainian on her “My Easel” arts and culture blog. She gave it as a gift, and “it attracted all the children [of] guests who visited our house.”

“Each of the six spreads yields enough clues, in fact, to delight [Detective Sherlock] Holmes himself,” writes Publisher’s Weekly in a review.

“Top Secret dossiers on each character can be slid out of the pages, while various flaps and pull-tabs reveal hidden architectural passages, concealed weaponry, and contraband lurking in various valises. Aspiring sleuths will echo the cry, ‘Egad, the game’s afoot.'”

Every year, billions of taxpayer dollars intended to provide health care to Americans are stolen by fraudulent schemes. Combined federal and state spending on Medicaid and Medicare is projected to exceed $800 billion per year in 2010. Estimates project fraud consumes 3 to 10 percent of total spending. That’s $27 billion to $80 billion in 2010 alone, if left unchecked, Virginia’s Daily Press reports.

During Fiscal Year 2009, the Federal Government won or negotiated approximately $1.63 billion in judgments and settlements, and it attained additional administration impositions in health care fraud cases and proceedings. The Medicare Trust Fund received transfers of approximately $2.51 billion during this period as a result of these efforts, as well as those of preceding years, in addition to over $441 million in Federal Medicaid money similarly transferred separately to the Treasury as a result of these efforts. The Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program account has returned over $15.6 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund since the inception of the Program in 1997. In Fiscal Year 2009, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices opened 1,014 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,786 defendants. Illustrations.

“Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. In Manhattan alone, there were more than 8,100 identity theft arrests between Jan. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2010, the office said.